Post by MeekaAquraria on Nov 24, 2010 15:28:44 GMT
Okay so here's something I started and always planned to continue but was never too sure of whether I should or not. I do have a short second chapter that may be a bit too explicit but after that I'm not sure if I want to continue. Give me your honest critiques.
Somebody once said ‘to err is human, to forgive divine’. I don’t know who said it originally, but whoever it was didn’t lead a very active life. My name is Shane, and I’m currently waist deep in sewage trying very hard not to breathe, while attempting to find a housecat, that some idiot had let escape and there was no way I was going to forgive them. The path ahead of me branched out in a Y-junction and I peered down the two tunnels, hoping there’d was some track I could follow. There wasn’t a track, but one of the tunnels seemed to get narrower, meaning I wouldn’t be able to go down that way.
Walking down the right and wider tunnel I reflected that I might have made a bad decision to become a mercenary, after all if I just stayed in college, I wouldn’t be walking waist deep in shit. I knew I should have done some other course in a different college after what happened, but I had decided that I was going to become the best fighter I could, and what better job to perfect that skill than mercenary. Mostly the jobs I picked were guard duty, though I did go for a few like this, tracking down missing pets, people and things and returning them to their owner. I was a bit squeamish about killing people and refused those jobs.
Which left me barely covering bills and in the sewers. Maybe if I managed to save enough I would go back, but I knew after being out in the world and this active I couldn’t get a degree and sit in an office all day for the rest of my life. I was a wanderer, constantly moving something and travelling all over the country to see new places. I’d always hoped I’d get to travel the world, but I knew I’d have to build up a better name for myself before that could happen so I was content just to see Ireland.
I reached a large room where several tunnels connected when I heard a deep growl. It sounded like it came from the tunnel to my left, but in this darkness my light only extended so far. Nearing that side of the room, the beginning of the tunnel started to reveal itself and there only a few feet in was my quarry. And he was beautiful, even showing me his teeth and growling at me. Because I was admiring him, I noticed as he tensed his muscles and leaped forward claws outstretched ready to tear me to shreds. I dove to the side narrowly missing getting my shoulder sliced open. Did I forget to mention this particular housecat was actually a panther and probably came up to my waist?
Rolling out of my dive I reached for the tranquiliser gun in a holster by my side, and it slid out of my hand, leaving some of the sewage in my hand. Dropping my light and picking it up again in both hands so it didn’t slide out again and took aim. I had fired two darts at him as he turned around and leaped at me again, before diving again to avoid him. He landed and shook his head before collapsing. At least the capture had gone smoothly. Turning my back to him as I put the gun away and picked up my light again.
When I turned back, I noticed that his fur seemed to be rippling, wrapping the cord of the light around my wrist I approached the cat carefully hoping that putting two darts in him hadn’t done any damage, the owner wanted his pet back alive. I reached him and put my hand out and felt for a pulse, there was one, slow and steady so my tranquiliser hadn’t done any damage. I made the mixture myself, making sure to put in the correct ingredients to negate any spells.
The fur underneath my hand started to recede and I looked on horrified as the panther started to change shape from cat to human. It took about five minutes for him to change back completely, leaving him naked, with only the blue collar still around his neck. Spells that changed another persons shape were very strong and required the caster to be of a high level. They were also very illegal. For a moment I panicked and thought of just leaving, here and now, but looking down at the man, no boy he was very young looking, I knew I couldn’t just leave him.
He was rail thin with lean muscle he must have developed during his life as a cat and he was probably no older than eighteen, with shoulder length hair. I carefully picked him up and carried him out of there in a fireman’s sling. He weighed next to nothing, taking me by surprise and I nearly fell over, braced as I was for a much heavier load. It took me ten minutes to reach the exit, ten minutes in which I decided I wasn’t returning this one to his owner, and I wasn’t going to forgive whoever had put the boy in his spell in the first place.
Probably the very person who asked me to find him in the first place. My client was a powerful politician, which usually meant they were very powerful sorcerers. It was surprising how adapted to magic we had become, it having only become a reality fifty years ago. In a short time, everybody had learnt some spells and it had become a part of everyday life.
Some scientists were doing genetic experiments to cure some diseases and as a side effect, some of the test subjects developed powers of some kind. At first the original group were ostracised and feared, but when the scientists managed to recreate what happened, everybody wanted powers of some kind. At first it was choas, people being killed, countries wiped out, but as the world population grew smaller, people soon learned to get along.
Well, not really, the United Nations got together and laid down a lot of laws, with heavy punishments. The world became a group of smaller governed states under the UN government and a dictatorship was put in place. Fast-forward fifty years and the powers that had caused so much trouble, became common-place. Just another required skill set when job hunting. And anybody who thought to use their powers wrongly, well lets just say the UN isn’t a peaceful body anymore.
The most common power people received was magic. Well the ability to make things happen. Most research these days goes into creating new spells, which is a lot harder than you think. The spells themselves are just rituals to shape the way the mind wants the power to be shaped, and its very hard to shape your mind into new ways.
My power was different, I could cast common enough spells, but really weather was my gift. I could change the weather to whatever I wanted with a carefully formed thought. I didn’t change the weather too much, it messed with the weather patterns too much and could cause horrific damage to crops and people. Mostly I just called up small localized wind. I’ve only ever called lightning once and I never wanted to repeat the process.
When I reached my car, I put the boy down on the ground beside me and unlocked it. I decided it would be best to put him in the backseat, a naked boy in my car would raise enough questions without everybody seeing him. Once that was done I got in and drove off, it wasn’t long before I came to the junction and had to choose. Choose whether I was going to bring him back to my client, or bring him home. I glanced back at him in the rear view mirror and noticed his ribs highlighted by the street lights. Home with me then.
I took a left and went home. I lived in a one bed apartment on the outskirts of Dublin. I was on the ground floor, and it was nearing midnight, so I don’t think anybody saw me carrying a naked boy to my place. It was awkward trying to open the door and get into my open plan living area and not injure him, but with some careful maneuvering I finally got in and put him down on the couch.
Careful not to touch anything else, I went to my small bathroom and showered the human waste off me. I washed as quickly as I could, but when I turned off the shower, I heard footsteps in the next room. Drying off quickly and wrapping a towel around my waist I went out to the living area, and found the boy looking nervously around the place. Probably for some clothes.
“If you wait a minute, I’ll get you some of my clothes.” I didn’t raise my voice, but he jumped anyway. He turned and looked at me. For a moment I thought he had forgotten how to speak, but eventually his eyes went to my shoulder.
“Did I do that?” I looked down to see a long, thin and red scratch, I had received on a job last week. Forgotten that was there.
“No. I got that on my last job. I’m a merc, though most of my jobs are guarding, I get a few tracking ones like tonight.” He looked relieved. “You can imagine my surprise when the panther I’m hunting turns out to be a person.”
“So now you’re going to hand me back?” His relief quickly turned to fright, with a touch of despair. How long was he a panther? How many times did he try to let people know he was human, and fail? How many realized the truth but just ignored it. Looking at him, I knew I couldn’t be one of them.
“No I’m not.” My voice was definitive and it seemed to reassure him. He went back to relieved and maybe a bit grateful.
“So do you always talk to naked male strangers in a towel?” I looked down again and I felt the start of a blush. I was forgetful but I didn’t think I could be this forgetful.
“I’ll be right back with those clothes for you.” I rushed into my bedroom and got dressed fast. I pulled out some old clothes and did a quick check of my room, to make sure it was neat before going back out to him. “Here you go. You can use my room to change if you like, or the bathroom and grab a shower?”
He smiled and thanked me before going into the bathroom and closing the door. I went into the kitchenette and opened the fridge. I had a big pot of stew that just needed some reheating in there and decided before I heard his tale he was getting fed. As I took out the pot and put it on the stove I decided I should get his name as well. I couldn’t just keep calling him boy.
The stew was finished reheating and I was dishing it out, wondering should I start to worry about him. I started scooping it out when a hand gripped my wrist, and I jumped. I know I should have heard him coming but I blame no shoes, and the fact that he was a panther for who knows how long.
“Its nice enough of you to rescue me, you don’t have to feed me too.” He had taken me up on the shower and his hair was still damp. He had put on the clothes I’d given him, they looked too baggy for him, and I wasn’t a big man.
“You’re right I don’t have to. I want to.” I went back to serving the meal, and gave him the largest portion. He smiled at me again a bit confused this time and sat down at my small dining table. I picked up my own bowl and sat down opposite him. We ate in silence, until he had finished.
“So, what’s your name?” I asked him.
“Derek. What’s yours?”
“Shane. -”
“So you’re a merc? What’s that like?” He asked so quickly I couldn’t ask him anything. I gave him a look but answered him anyway.
“Yes, I’ve been doing it for about five years now. Its not too bad, if you pick your assignments carefully. I don’t kill anybody intentionally. I will say it does mean I pass on a lot of jobs, but at least I get to sleep at night.” I paused and looked at him. He looked tired, and judging by the way he had asked me the question I knew he didn’t want to talk about his captivity. Probably didn’t want to talk about anything personal either. “Look its well past midnight, why don’t you sleep in my room and we can talk in the morning?”
He nodded warily and got up and walked over to my room. I shook my head at how skittish he seemed to be, jumping from one emotion to another so quickly, and washed up the dinner plates and gave everything a scrub down. I went over to the hot press and got down the blankets I kept in there. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d slept on that couch and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
“Aren’t you coming in here?” I looked over my shoulder to see him leaning in my doorway, t-shirt already off. I don’t know how the jeans didn’t fall down over his hips when they were as baggy as they were.
“I thought you were asleep. I’m going to sleep on the couch, its comfortable enough.”
He looked taken aback at that, and a little confused. Did he really think I’d come into the room and sleep beside him. We barely knew each other. Then I realized why he was being so skittish. He thought I wanted payment for helping him, and since he obviously didn’t have anything else, he thought I wanted his body.
“Look, I’m helping you because you need it. No obligations, no strings. Go to sleep, I’ll be out here, on the couch.”
He shook his head, “no, I’ll sleep on the couch. Your already doing so much for me, I won’t put you out of your bed as well.”
My turn to smile at him. “Nonsense, I’m the trained merc, you’re the kid on the run, if somebody tries to sneak in here I’d prefer to be out front. As I said the couch is comfortable enough, I’ve slept on it enough times.”
“I really should argue the point with you, but I will admit to looking forward to a night’s sleep on a real bed. So thank you, and goodnight.” He retreated into the room and closed the door. I finished setting up my bed on the couch and thought about what kind of life Derek must have had before, for him to automatically think I wanted sex from him for helping. It mustn’t have been a good one. And for no rational reason I got angry all over again.
There was no way that kid was going back now.
Somebody once said ‘to err is human, to forgive divine’. I don’t know who said it originally, but whoever it was didn’t lead a very active life. My name is Shane, and I’m currently waist deep in sewage trying very hard not to breathe, while attempting to find a housecat, that some idiot had let escape and there was no way I was going to forgive them. The path ahead of me branched out in a Y-junction and I peered down the two tunnels, hoping there’d was some track I could follow. There wasn’t a track, but one of the tunnels seemed to get narrower, meaning I wouldn’t be able to go down that way.
Walking down the right and wider tunnel I reflected that I might have made a bad decision to become a mercenary, after all if I just stayed in college, I wouldn’t be walking waist deep in shit. I knew I should have done some other course in a different college after what happened, but I had decided that I was going to become the best fighter I could, and what better job to perfect that skill than mercenary. Mostly the jobs I picked were guard duty, though I did go for a few like this, tracking down missing pets, people and things and returning them to their owner. I was a bit squeamish about killing people and refused those jobs.
Which left me barely covering bills and in the sewers. Maybe if I managed to save enough I would go back, but I knew after being out in the world and this active I couldn’t get a degree and sit in an office all day for the rest of my life. I was a wanderer, constantly moving something and travelling all over the country to see new places. I’d always hoped I’d get to travel the world, but I knew I’d have to build up a better name for myself before that could happen so I was content just to see Ireland.
I reached a large room where several tunnels connected when I heard a deep growl. It sounded like it came from the tunnel to my left, but in this darkness my light only extended so far. Nearing that side of the room, the beginning of the tunnel started to reveal itself and there only a few feet in was my quarry. And he was beautiful, even showing me his teeth and growling at me. Because I was admiring him, I noticed as he tensed his muscles and leaped forward claws outstretched ready to tear me to shreds. I dove to the side narrowly missing getting my shoulder sliced open. Did I forget to mention this particular housecat was actually a panther and probably came up to my waist?
Rolling out of my dive I reached for the tranquiliser gun in a holster by my side, and it slid out of my hand, leaving some of the sewage in my hand. Dropping my light and picking it up again in both hands so it didn’t slide out again and took aim. I had fired two darts at him as he turned around and leaped at me again, before diving again to avoid him. He landed and shook his head before collapsing. At least the capture had gone smoothly. Turning my back to him as I put the gun away and picked up my light again.
When I turned back, I noticed that his fur seemed to be rippling, wrapping the cord of the light around my wrist I approached the cat carefully hoping that putting two darts in him hadn’t done any damage, the owner wanted his pet back alive. I reached him and put my hand out and felt for a pulse, there was one, slow and steady so my tranquiliser hadn’t done any damage. I made the mixture myself, making sure to put in the correct ingredients to negate any spells.
The fur underneath my hand started to recede and I looked on horrified as the panther started to change shape from cat to human. It took about five minutes for him to change back completely, leaving him naked, with only the blue collar still around his neck. Spells that changed another persons shape were very strong and required the caster to be of a high level. They were also very illegal. For a moment I panicked and thought of just leaving, here and now, but looking down at the man, no boy he was very young looking, I knew I couldn’t just leave him.
He was rail thin with lean muscle he must have developed during his life as a cat and he was probably no older than eighteen, with shoulder length hair. I carefully picked him up and carried him out of there in a fireman’s sling. He weighed next to nothing, taking me by surprise and I nearly fell over, braced as I was for a much heavier load. It took me ten minutes to reach the exit, ten minutes in which I decided I wasn’t returning this one to his owner, and I wasn’t going to forgive whoever had put the boy in his spell in the first place.
Probably the very person who asked me to find him in the first place. My client was a powerful politician, which usually meant they were very powerful sorcerers. It was surprising how adapted to magic we had become, it having only become a reality fifty years ago. In a short time, everybody had learnt some spells and it had become a part of everyday life.
Some scientists were doing genetic experiments to cure some diseases and as a side effect, some of the test subjects developed powers of some kind. At first the original group were ostracised and feared, but when the scientists managed to recreate what happened, everybody wanted powers of some kind. At first it was choas, people being killed, countries wiped out, but as the world population grew smaller, people soon learned to get along.
Well, not really, the United Nations got together and laid down a lot of laws, with heavy punishments. The world became a group of smaller governed states under the UN government and a dictatorship was put in place. Fast-forward fifty years and the powers that had caused so much trouble, became common-place. Just another required skill set when job hunting. And anybody who thought to use their powers wrongly, well lets just say the UN isn’t a peaceful body anymore.
The most common power people received was magic. Well the ability to make things happen. Most research these days goes into creating new spells, which is a lot harder than you think. The spells themselves are just rituals to shape the way the mind wants the power to be shaped, and its very hard to shape your mind into new ways.
My power was different, I could cast common enough spells, but really weather was my gift. I could change the weather to whatever I wanted with a carefully formed thought. I didn’t change the weather too much, it messed with the weather patterns too much and could cause horrific damage to crops and people. Mostly I just called up small localized wind. I’ve only ever called lightning once and I never wanted to repeat the process.
When I reached my car, I put the boy down on the ground beside me and unlocked it. I decided it would be best to put him in the backseat, a naked boy in my car would raise enough questions without everybody seeing him. Once that was done I got in and drove off, it wasn’t long before I came to the junction and had to choose. Choose whether I was going to bring him back to my client, or bring him home. I glanced back at him in the rear view mirror and noticed his ribs highlighted by the street lights. Home with me then.
I took a left and went home. I lived in a one bed apartment on the outskirts of Dublin. I was on the ground floor, and it was nearing midnight, so I don’t think anybody saw me carrying a naked boy to my place. It was awkward trying to open the door and get into my open plan living area and not injure him, but with some careful maneuvering I finally got in and put him down on the couch.
Careful not to touch anything else, I went to my small bathroom and showered the human waste off me. I washed as quickly as I could, but when I turned off the shower, I heard footsteps in the next room. Drying off quickly and wrapping a towel around my waist I went out to the living area, and found the boy looking nervously around the place. Probably for some clothes.
“If you wait a minute, I’ll get you some of my clothes.” I didn’t raise my voice, but he jumped anyway. He turned and looked at me. For a moment I thought he had forgotten how to speak, but eventually his eyes went to my shoulder.
“Did I do that?” I looked down to see a long, thin and red scratch, I had received on a job last week. Forgotten that was there.
“No. I got that on my last job. I’m a merc, though most of my jobs are guarding, I get a few tracking ones like tonight.” He looked relieved. “You can imagine my surprise when the panther I’m hunting turns out to be a person.”
“So now you’re going to hand me back?” His relief quickly turned to fright, with a touch of despair. How long was he a panther? How many times did he try to let people know he was human, and fail? How many realized the truth but just ignored it. Looking at him, I knew I couldn’t be one of them.
“No I’m not.” My voice was definitive and it seemed to reassure him. He went back to relieved and maybe a bit grateful.
“So do you always talk to naked male strangers in a towel?” I looked down again and I felt the start of a blush. I was forgetful but I didn’t think I could be this forgetful.
“I’ll be right back with those clothes for you.” I rushed into my bedroom and got dressed fast. I pulled out some old clothes and did a quick check of my room, to make sure it was neat before going back out to him. “Here you go. You can use my room to change if you like, or the bathroom and grab a shower?”
He smiled and thanked me before going into the bathroom and closing the door. I went into the kitchenette and opened the fridge. I had a big pot of stew that just needed some reheating in there and decided before I heard his tale he was getting fed. As I took out the pot and put it on the stove I decided I should get his name as well. I couldn’t just keep calling him boy.
The stew was finished reheating and I was dishing it out, wondering should I start to worry about him. I started scooping it out when a hand gripped my wrist, and I jumped. I know I should have heard him coming but I blame no shoes, and the fact that he was a panther for who knows how long.
“Its nice enough of you to rescue me, you don’t have to feed me too.” He had taken me up on the shower and his hair was still damp. He had put on the clothes I’d given him, they looked too baggy for him, and I wasn’t a big man.
“You’re right I don’t have to. I want to.” I went back to serving the meal, and gave him the largest portion. He smiled at me again a bit confused this time and sat down at my small dining table. I picked up my own bowl and sat down opposite him. We ate in silence, until he had finished.
“So, what’s your name?” I asked him.
“Derek. What’s yours?”
“Shane. -”
“So you’re a merc? What’s that like?” He asked so quickly I couldn’t ask him anything. I gave him a look but answered him anyway.
“Yes, I’ve been doing it for about five years now. Its not too bad, if you pick your assignments carefully. I don’t kill anybody intentionally. I will say it does mean I pass on a lot of jobs, but at least I get to sleep at night.” I paused and looked at him. He looked tired, and judging by the way he had asked me the question I knew he didn’t want to talk about his captivity. Probably didn’t want to talk about anything personal either. “Look its well past midnight, why don’t you sleep in my room and we can talk in the morning?”
He nodded warily and got up and walked over to my room. I shook my head at how skittish he seemed to be, jumping from one emotion to another so quickly, and washed up the dinner plates and gave everything a scrub down. I went over to the hot press and got down the blankets I kept in there. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d slept on that couch and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
“Aren’t you coming in here?” I looked over my shoulder to see him leaning in my doorway, t-shirt already off. I don’t know how the jeans didn’t fall down over his hips when they were as baggy as they were.
“I thought you were asleep. I’m going to sleep on the couch, its comfortable enough.”
He looked taken aback at that, and a little confused. Did he really think I’d come into the room and sleep beside him. We barely knew each other. Then I realized why he was being so skittish. He thought I wanted payment for helping him, and since he obviously didn’t have anything else, he thought I wanted his body.
“Look, I’m helping you because you need it. No obligations, no strings. Go to sleep, I’ll be out here, on the couch.”
He shook his head, “no, I’ll sleep on the couch. Your already doing so much for me, I won’t put you out of your bed as well.”
My turn to smile at him. “Nonsense, I’m the trained merc, you’re the kid on the run, if somebody tries to sneak in here I’d prefer to be out front. As I said the couch is comfortable enough, I’ve slept on it enough times.”
“I really should argue the point with you, but I will admit to looking forward to a night’s sleep on a real bed. So thank you, and goodnight.” He retreated into the room and closed the door. I finished setting up my bed on the couch and thought about what kind of life Derek must have had before, for him to automatically think I wanted sex from him for helping. It mustn’t have been a good one. And for no rational reason I got angry all over again.
There was no way that kid was going back now.
